A week after the attack in Villejuif, which had seen a radicalized man kill one person and injure two more people before he was himself shot dead by the police, the police are worried.
The partner of the killed jihadist, arrested on Tuesday before being released, warned that sheo would avenge his death. “The latter was tapped, and during a telephone conversation she warned her interlocutor that she intended to go to a police station with a knife in her hand in order to be killed,” the document noted which French weekly Valeurs Actuelles was able to consult. “She confirmed what she said during her police custody testimony on January 7,” it added.
These statements did not prevent the release of the young woman, who is deemed to be “psychologically fragile” according to a source close to the investigation cited by le Parisien but “no particular disorder” was detected according to the document consulted by the weekly.
“As a result, the risk continues in our constituency,” warned the notice, which therefore requires the police to “heighten vigilance” at the reception of police stations “and any police intervention in general”.
The only means of protection, the document concludes by recommending, is the use of… metal detectors and “getting users to specify the reason for their visit, as is already the case” .
According to the initial results of the investigation, the assailant was named Nathan C. and was born in 1997 in Les Lilas. Known by the police for acts of violence against the police, he was not on file for radicalization and had a psychiatric history.
He was neutralized by at least three shots from police from the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) when he “fled to the Carrefour de L’Haÿ-les-Roses shopping center, where he apparently intended to continue his attacks, ” said the city’s mayor Vincent Jeanbrun.
“The attacker, when the police arrived, pointed towards them with ostentatious weapons in hand in an attempt to kill them and the police used their assault rifle, which they are equipped with, to neutralize the attacker who fell to the ground,” said François Bersani, deputy departmental secretary of SGP-FO Police Unit.
He was not carrying explosives, but a team of deminers was dispatched to the scene. “The attacker pretended to use what could have been an explosive vest, hence a new round of fire to permanently neutralize the attacker,” added Vincent Jeanbrun. According to RTL, which reported the words of several witnesses, the man, of European type, wore a djellaba and beard at the time of the facts.
A photo taken on the spot immediately after the attack confirmed this information, showing the alleged killer lying on his back and dressed in what looks like a black djellaba. In addition, according to LCI, a letter with religious references and a book on Islam were found close to the body.
According to information, the young woman aged 22 was arrested on Tuesday in Essonne. She is suspected of having wanted to kill herself by attacking the police. She was carrying a knife on her when she was arrested.
As a reminder, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office announced on Saturday January 4 that it would take over the investigation into the knife attack perpetrated in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) by a man with psychiatric disorders, reported RTL .
The prosecutor said the assailant’s “thoughtful and selective murderous journey” was “likely to seriously disturb public order by intimidation or terror”.
The assailant’s small Paris studio was found almost empty. An oven and a microwave belonging to Nathan C. were allegedly discovered in the garbage container of the building he lived in, in the capital’s 14th arrondissement.
The young assailant also filled a suitcase with food which he intended to entrust to a neighbour “in order to give it to homeless people”. The weapon used in the attack, moreover, could have come from his home. The thesis of a premeditated act had thus gained momentum, especially since the discovery of a “testamentary letter” in his bag
The assailant had wanted to marry religiously with his girlfriend domiciled in Essonne, but “the imam had refused to marry them because they were not in a civil union”.
Questioned at a press conference on Saturday January 4, before the anti-terrorist prosecution finally took over the case, the prosecutor noted: “A terrorist act is not excluded because a person has a psychiatric history, but it still has to be demonstrated,” the official said.